Vini Placco to Join NOIRLab Scientific Staff in Tucson

NOIRLab is pleased to welcome Dr. Vinicius (Vini) Placco to its scientific staff beginning September 2020. He joins the Lab as an Associate Scientist within the newly launched Research and Science Services (RSS) Division, which unites scientific staff across the Lab. He will be based in Tucson and will join the US National Gemini Office within NOIRLab’s Community Science and Data Center (CSDC).

Vini obtained his PhD in Astronomy in 2010 at the University of São Paulo in Brazil. Following postdoctoral appointments in São Paulo, he held postdoctoral positions at NOAO and as a Gemini Fellow. In 2015 he joined the faculty of the University of Notre Dame as a Research Assistant Professor. His research focuses on stellar archaeology, in particular on the origins of the chemical elements in the Milky Way and the Universe through spectroscopy of the oldest, most metal-poor stars. He is currently involved in efforts to apply machine learning techniques to narrow-band photometric surveys and also has interests in data science and data curation. Vini’s depth of experience in user support, science operations, and spectroscopy—at Gemini and beyond—will be a fantastic asset to the US NGO and to NOIRLab.

About the US National Gemini Office

Each Gemini partner, including the United States, has its own National Gemini Office (NGO). The NGOs support the National (or partner) users in all phases of the astronomical observing cycle, from proposal preparation through data analysis. They also represent their user communities within the Gemini Operations Working Group.